DAY ONE | DAY TWO | DAY THREE | DAY FOUR | DAY FIVE

DAY TWO



Basic Game Terminology - humor vs fact definition game; slide show (on disc) defining terms
  • Easter Eggs - Game Maker will allow for hidden cheat codes
  • AI - Artificial Intelligence, the computer's decision-making; term is left out of the slide show
  • Postmortem - check out gamasutra.com for good examples of these, read some prior to doing extensive game dev
  • Turn-based - every player in game has to take turn before next events occur; left out of slide show

Chapter 3 - Galactic Mail
  • Setting a "center" origin will allow the space ship to land in the proper place.
  • need to try out the mods

Student Examples on Disc
After playing these, it is clear that instructions are always needed for every game!
  • Spider Typing - excellent, need to install in lab
  • Arctic Antics - good low elementary level
  • Draining Bugs - good math practice
  • Fractoni's Pizza - too hard to understand
  • Gotta Match Em All - needs more variety and should get rid of click next card pop up
  • Multiplier Climber - good game once you figure out how to play it (left click for left number, right click for right number, then press start)
  • Prime Ape - not bad, but hard to focus on numbers
  • Nintendo Trivia - text at the bottom is too hard to read
  • iGramaga - not enough adjectives and it isn't obvious when you're taking damage, plus it is unclear how to damage boss
  • Super Jungle Trivia - requires too much reading
  • State of Mind - needs sound and more obvious penalties for clicking incorrect answers
  • Math Galaxy - not bad
  • Space Cowboy - takes way too long to load, but it is a pretty good platformer; needs instructions on controls; learning takes place through narration, not through actual gameplay objectives

Chapter 4 - Lazarus
to be continued

Level Design using Unreal3
  • Unreal is a game engine and comes from Epic Games (Raleigh-area); it is primarily a game engine company, but they do make games also
  • license for Unreal3 costs $750,000
  • Unreal Tournament (game) "collector's/special edition" costs less than $100 and comes with an Unreal editor on board and about 20 hours of tutorial video
  • Torque engine from GarageGames.com is a $100 for engine with license


Animazement is in Durham on Memorial Day weekend - good cosplay for anime fans of all ages